It took Jackie DiNardo 25 years to win her first FCIAC girls basketball championship. It could take a considerably shorter time, like maybe 12 months later, to get title No. 2.

DiNardo's Danbury High Hatters loom as a solid favorite to repeat as FCIAC champs in 2012-13. Star center Casey Smith has graduated, but DiNardo has plenty of talent returning to reload, including twin star guards Rachel and Rebecca Gartner.

It was quite a season last year, though. The team won 25 games (25-1) in the coach's 25th season and compiled the first perfect 20-0 regular-season -- boys or girls -- in school history. Besides getting her first league championship, DiNardo also picked up her 400th career victory.

But DiNardo knows that winning back-to-back championships is quite difficult, regardless of how good your team appears to be.

"Everybody will be going hard after us," DiNardo said. "When they play us they'll be playing at a different level. No doubt we'll have a target on our backs."

Danbury beat then defending champ Trumbull in last year's FCIAC final after knocking off Wilton in the semifinals. DiNardo expects both of those teams, along with a few others, to be right up there with her Hatters in contention for this season's crown.

"They all want to knock us off so we have to keep our composure and play the way we know how," DiNardo said.

Five teams to watch

1. Danbury: The Hatters will rely heavily on their backcourt of the Gartner twins, who were co-MVPs as sophomores during last season's FCIAC Tournament and who would love to duplicate the feat.

2. Trumbull: Coach Steve Tobitsch really wanted a second consecutive championship last season after losing so many seniors the year before, but would gladly take two out of three.

3. Wilton: The Warriors were a bit of a surprise last year, reaching the FCIAC semifinals, but could go a step further if Casey Pearsall gets support from three sophomore starters.